Case Study

ACS helps with issues arising from rapid growth

Our client started trading in 2011 and supplies electricity to commercial SME premises. Their business model was to install Smart Meters to all sites and have all customers set up on direct debit. This would ensure customers would have accurate reads, pay promptly and if necessary the supply could be remotely disconnected.

When they first contacted us, they did not envisage a need for disconnection services and engaged ACS to provide our Trace + Collect service to recover debt on final billed accounts where there had been a change of tenancy and the customer had vacated leaving no forwarding address.

Rapid growth of the company highlighted a few unforeseen circumstances;

Inability to arrange for installation of a smart meter

Lack of signal from smart meter

No team, process or resources in place to deal with Live debt

This led to an increasing debt burden for the company, which, along with the usual cash flow pressures experienced by high growth businesses, meant a solution needed to be found quickly.

They could have created an in house disconnections department but they did not have the time to recruit and train the staff required and a spiralling head count wasn't the sort of growth they wanted.

ACS took over the management of Live debt under our Collect + Disconnect service. The advantages to our client over contracting directly with a field services only company were real time management of their accounts without any additional staffing or resource burden and continuous cash collection activity from those accounts while the disconnection process was underway.

In 2012 we managed over 4400 accounts for them and collected almost £2.0m in cash while the disconnection process was underway, providing a much needed boost to their cashflow and giving them the time they needed to manage their growth.